Chasing red

[BergieVisserman]

Good day everyone

Just came back from a trip to the Panhandle in Botswana. Being a first for me I didn’t really know what to expect, and wasn’t sure if end of september would be the best time to book. Luckily two weeks ago the news came the the barbel run has started, and the dirty water was producing some good tigers.

I will post it as it happened day by day.

Day 1

We arrived at Nxamaseri lodge around 12 and had lunch. We would meet our guide at three for out first afternoon session. Set up our gear and at three off we went. It wasn’t long before we found traces of barbel starting to feed and we mainly used drifting up and down the river casting towards the reeds where the tigers were waiting for the bulldog baitfish to come into the main channel. I caught my biggest fish on the first afternoon of 3.4kg on a bulldog Afrijig

 

[BergieVisserman]

We also managed a few other fish ranging from 1kg to 2.5kg.

 

[BergieVisserman]

Day 2

Fishing on this day was hard. We fished a total of 9 hours for the day and only managed a few tigers. Also got a few barbel on effzets and even tried rapalas. Never the less we ended up getting a few fish at least which kept the hunger for more in the background.

 

[BergieVisserman]

Day 3

We had an epic morning on day three. Even though we didn’t really catch fish at the barbel run itself, there were a lot of tigers where the nxamaseri channel runs into the main channel. We dubbed it the honey pot and all our 3kg + fish came from here. We mainly caught on effzets on day three, somehow the afrijigs was out fished by the effzets this morning. Guess that is why we arm ourselves with a vast amount of different lures.

 

[BergieVisserman]

Early morning tiger

 

[BergieVisserman]

These fish seems to put a smile on your face everytime.

 

[BergieVisserman]

Day 4

We finally found a proper barbel run and it was an epic day. They hammered the afrijigs. Cast for cast we were on and as it was our last day we organized the previous day to stay out the whole day and have our lunch on an island. One always hear these stories about fisherman who catch a lot of fish, and to be honest it was so chaotic we lost count. But it was a lot and I’ve never in my life had a sore wrist from striking so much.

 

[BergieVisserman]

Some proof in the pudding...

 

[BergieVisserman]

Lots of young fish

 

[BergieVisserman]

Lots of double ups.

 

[BergieVisserman]

The hippo grass in the back of this photo always produced some fish. Cast wait 6 seconds to sink then start retrieving. That smash was always within the first 3 seconds of the retrieve.

 

[BergieVisserman]

You can see in my eyes in this photo that I am knackered. I have never been this exhausted after a day of fishing haha.

 

[BergieVisserman]

As a conclusion it was an experience I will never forget. A bucket list item that should be on everyones list. To hear that popping sound of barbel coming through the reeds and chasing baitfish by itself is enough to make any fisherman start producing adrenalin.

You can also not take too much fishing gear. These fish are rough on tackle. The smash those lures and after a few takes the hair is pulled out of jigs, rapala’s you can throw in the dustbin, the spoons need constant new hooks and all of this while sitting in a feeding frenzy.

I learned an awful lot and will definitely be better prepared next time. These tigers earned my respect and I will be back for more.((r(e(ling

 

[TimJan]

Awesome Report.
One of my biggest wishes but money is the problem.

 

[BergieVisserman]

TimJan wrote:

Awesome Report.
One of my biggest wishes but money is the problem.

It definitely ain't a cheap trip, even with us only living 340km from Shakawe. There is however cheaper ways to do the trip. Finding the barbel run isn’t very difficult, and drifting down river just casting at structure and holes can be rewarding. Majority of the larger fish weren’t caught where the barbel were feeding, we threw anchor and fished a lot of the junctions that meets up with the main channel.